Massive Attack has plans for a new album. Portishead has reunited. Kingdom have risen and fallen, and over 10 years have passed since the birth of trip-hop. For too long, the lords of the downbeat had been silent. But now something is stirring. It comes'a rumblin' from the West, a steady hum from the concert venues of America. It could only mean one thing: Tricky has been roused from his slumber to complete an extensive tour of the United States and resume his position in the sacred trip-hop trifecta.
Tricky will be hitting the road for a five-week U.S. tour in support of his most recent album Knowle West Boy, a fresh mix of hip-hop, punk, and electronica that proves the Kid is still an innovative and inspiring presence in the scene. If you missed Tricky when he was last stateside in September, this list of tourdates is his most extensive yet, with stops at the Langerado Festival in Miami and at SXSW, where he's billed alongside Devo.
To celebrate, Domino Records is digitally releasing the "Puppy Boy" single with remixes, unreleased B-sides, and videos for "Council Estate" and "Puppy Boy." Performances promise songs from throughout the man's career, and he's been selling out shows all across Europe -- so don't sleep on this
03.02.09 - Farmingdale, NY - Crazy Donkey 03.03.09 - New York, NY - The Fillmore at Irving Plaza 03.06.09 - Miami, FL - Langerado Festival 03.07.09 - St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre 03.09.09 - Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theatre 03.10.09 - Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live 03.11.09 - Boston, MA - The Roxy 03.13.09 - Chicago, IL - Epiphany 03.14.09 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line Music Hall 03.18.09 - San Antonio, TX - The Scout Bar 03.20.09 - Austin, TX - Austin Music Hall* 03.23.09 - San Diego, CA - Belly Up 03.24.09 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues 03.25.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater 03.26.09 - San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine 03.27.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir 03.28.09 - Seattle, WA - Showbox
Ryland Bouchard (ex-Robot Ate Me) will wrap up his European tour tonight in Brussels, before embarking on a "whole new world" (North America) tomorrow in Chicago. He'll be supporting his latest 7-inch box set, Seeds (TMT News), which is absolutely beautiful.
Tour-related things to check out:
- I Need Sleep, who are opening a bunch of the dates and have some music coming out on Swim Slowly later this year. - Emperor X, who is also playing a bunch of dates with Ryland. - Drew Danburry, who's only playing a handful of dates but also has his own tour going on.
Things to check out in any context:
- Indian River High School Talent Show (performance of "A Whole New World"):
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- "A Whole New World" by Nick Pitera (check out this dude's "Jasmine"):
02.04.09 - Chicago, IL - Go Go Town: 3117 S. Morgan Ave
02.05.09 - Toronto, ON - Rancho Relaxo # 02.06.09 - Montreal, QC - The Green Room # & ! 02.07.09 - Ottawa, ON - 443 Kent Street # 02.12.09 - Burlington, VT - Monkey House 02.13.09 - Willimantic, CT - Wrench in the Works 02.15.09 - New York City, NY - Cake Shop # 02.16.09 - Jamestown, NY - Labyrinth Press Company # 02.17.09 - Meadville, PE - Allegheny College # 02.18.09 - Gambier, OH - Kenyon College # & 02.19.09 - Kalamazoo, MI - 1809 Douglas Ave
02.20.09 - Rock Island, IL - Daytrotter 02.21.09 - Dekalb, IL - The House Cafe # && 02.22.09 - Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle &# 02.23.09 - East Moline, IL - Mixtapes! 02.25.09 - Urbana, IL - 107 N Coler Ave # && 02.26.09 - Madison, WI - TBA 02.27.09 - Northfield, MN - Carleton College # && 02.28.09 - Minneapolis, MN - TBA 03.03.09 - Kansas City, MO - The Pistol Social Club # 03.06.09 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves $ & # 03.07.09 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf $ & # 03.09.09 - Phoenix, AZ - The Trunk Space # & $ 03.10.09 - Tucson, AZ - The Living Room 03.12.09 - Irvine, CA - UC Irvine $ & # 03.13.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Ports O Call 03.20.09 - Portland, OR - The Artistery
On April 7, Vagrant will release The Hold Steady's A Positive Rage, a double-disc set that includes a 53-minute documentary of the band in London and a live disc from Halloween 2007. According to their publicist: "A Positive Rage captures the excitement and high spirits of both the band and their fans in the days surrounding the release of their third full-length, Boys and Girls in America, (Vagrant) and ensuing world tour in 2006."
The live disc will also feature five bonus tracks, "Ask Her For Adderall," "Cheyenne Sunrise," "Two Handed Handshake," and unreleased tracks "Spectres" and "40 Bucks."
The band's currently on tour, which will culminate with the band opening for Counting Crows in May.
There, I wrote the story. Can you let me out of this room now, Mr P? Fuckin' jerk.
A Positive Rage tracklisting:
1. Intro 2. Stuck Between Stations 3. The Swish 4. Chips Ahoy! 5. Massive Nights 6. Ask Her For Adderall 7. Barfruit Blues 8. Same Kooks 9. You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With) 10. Lord, I'm Discouraged 11. You Can Make Him Like You 12. Your Little Hoodrat Friend 13. Southtown Girls 14. Citrus 15. First Night 16. Girls Like Status 17. Killer Parities
02.04.09 - Sydney, AUS - The Metro Theatre 02.06.09 - Perth, AUS - Laneway Festival 02.07.09 - Adelaide, AUS - Laneway Festival 02.08.09 - Sydney, AUS - Laneway Festival 03.31.09 - Albany, NY - Valentine's 04.01.09 - Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall 04.02.09 - Grand Rapids, MI - Calvin College Fine Arts Center 04.03.09 - Urbana, IL - Illini Courtyard Café 04.04.09 - Bloomington, IN - Jake's Nightclub 04.06.09 - St. Louis, MO - Gargoyle 04.07.09 - Iowa City, IA - The Picador 04.08.09 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown 04.10.09 - Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre 04.11.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Urban Lounge 04.13.09 - Las Vegas, NV - Beauty Bar 04.14.09 - Stateline, NV - Harrah's Tahoe South Shore Room 04.17.09 - Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 04.15.09 - Sacramento, CA - Harlow's 05.10.09 - Glasgow, UK - SECC # 05.11.09 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Evening News Arena # 05.13.09 - Birmingham, UK - NIA # 05.14.09 - London, UK - Wembley Arena # 05.16.09 - Cardiff, UK - Cardiff Arena # 05.18.09 - Bournemouth, UK - BIC # 05.19.09 - Nottingham, UK - Royal Centre # 05.21.09 - Brixton, UK - Academy # 05.30.09 - Hunter Mountain, NY - Mountain Jam
You know something? Before Frank Zappa died in 1993, he was a lot of things: a tireless tinkerer, a musical adventurer, a trail-blazing perfectionist, an outlandishly innovative band leader, and a caring and, shall we say, ”highly original” husband and father. But you know what? There’s one thing he wasn’t: a good-looking man.
Such trivial physicalities were clearly of no great importance to the German Frank Zappa Fan Club, however, as they have seemingly had no problem using Frank’s name and image in logos and other merchandize products relating to their annual Zappanale Festival since its inception back in 1990. (Umm, now might be a good time to take a moment to remind everyone here just what that hallowed image looks like, probably huh? Yeah. Here you go.)
Recently, however, Frank’s widow Gail and her family trust launched a lawsuit against the German Fan Club over its little annual shindig (which attracted some 6,800 visitors last year), demanding, in particular, the removal of a (get this!) bronze sculpture of Zappa that serves as the centerpiece of the festival site (yeah, let’s go to those visual aids one more time, shall we?) and damages of €250,000 (that’s $325,000) if the festival continues to use the “Zappanale” name.
Unfortunately for, er, everyone, the higher court in Dusseldorf ruled on January 21 that festival organizers may continue to use Zappa's name and his image on the festival logo, as well as on related merchandise products such as t-shirts and baseball caps (I could do this all day!).
It further ruled that Gail Zappa's rights were not violated and that she could not prove she uses the Zappa brand in Germany herself, finding she has had knowledge of the festival since its inception back in the day. Several thousand (presumably blind?) Zappa fans had previously demanded the withdrawal of the lawsuit, which was first launched in April 2008. Thomas Dippel, festival speaker and head of that crazy little bronze-statue-errecting fan club, welcomed the ruling. "We have always been certain that we have the older rights," he said. "We have also patented the name of the festival with the German patent office. Gail Zappa only applied for the patent of her own rights in 2002." So I guess all’s well that ends well, right Frank? Yeeeek... uh, right.
Oh, and FYI: The 2009 edition is scheduled August 12-16. And I bet they serve burnt weenie sandwiches there!
Envision "excitement." Do you see fireworks? A cowboy monkey riding a dog? Hot babes with nose drugs? How about letters and numerals? Now, if you're Koch Records, maybe the first three are all well and good, but it looks like the ol' putting-a-letter-with-a-number trick never fails to stir up some thrills. See, America's largest indie record company is looking to step its game up a little bit in these tough economic times with a good old-fashioned name change. And what did they choose? Capuchin Recordings? Taco'rustlin? Columbian Lady, Inc? Oh no... they went all out and took an "E," funked it up, and slapped a "1" on it -- and voila, ladies and gentlemen, we have E1 Recordings.
Not sure of the exact reason for the revamp, but in spite of the badness affecting record industry stalwarts WEA, Universal, EMI, and Sony, the newly-christened E1 says it is doing pretty alright and avoiding the cutbacks. Bravo, E1. But don't take it from me; take it from General Manager Alan Grunblatt, who stated in a press release that "We are looking at the best year in our history. We are just changing our name to E1 and will continue to change the game."
Lose the watch, man. According to Pitchfork, there’s a new independent film coming out soon (and in glorious TECHNICOLOR at that!) called Know Your Mushrooms, and its soundtrack will feature contributions (musical and possibly otherwise) by everyone’s favorite white men on the chessboard: The Flaming Lips. (Animal Collective must have been deemed a little too bad-trip-prone for this one... oh, plus they’re probably busy charting...)
Directed by Grass documentarian Ron “Maaan” Mann and featuring ’shroom expert Larry Evans, the film will apparently, you know, steer pretty clear of any attempts to legitimize its subject and will likely reinforce the HELL out of every hallucinogenic stereotype in the book as it "opens the doors to perception, takes the audience on a longer, stranger trip and delivers them to a brave new world where the fungi might well guide humanity to a saner, safer place… with extra cheese…" according to its website.
But hey, that’s just, like, my opinion, man. Besides, there’s no stopping this multi-colored microbus of a film now! Know Your Mushrooms premiered this past December and is already hitting the festival circuit and art houses in North America. Stops on the magical mystery tour will include screenings at SXSW March 14, Cinematheque Winnepeg March 13-15, and Vancouver's The Vancity April 3-6.
And in celebration of the film, our boys the Lips have put a brand new song from the movie called "Anything You Say Now I Believe You" on their MySpace page. The movie also features "The Wizard Turns On..." from At War with the Mystics and The Soft Bulletin's "What Is the Light?" Wizards? Mysterious light? Man, what a geeky ass drug mushrooms are!
